The ash dogs are the ones that look like silver Labradors or Weimaraners, and it is genetically the same– a liver dilute.
The only two colors in Chesapeakes that I can identify with certainty are ashes and deadgrasses. I tend to have problems separating colors that are shades of liver that have been diluted through sun exposure and colors that are dark recessive reds with brown skin.
I wonder if there is a weimeraner lurking somewhere in this family tree. Or if the dilute gene is also present in the chesapeake lines.
I had a chesapeake-great dane cross with a liver nose and medium brown fur — straighter than a full blooded chessie — and he ranged between 85 pounds and 115 pounds (after a visit to my aunt for six weeks). Obviously the dane (fawn) was Bb, but I’ve never ever seen another dane or dane cross with a liver nose.
I think it’s more likely in the cur-type of dog that was crossed into the Chesapeake. There are blue mountain curs, which are a black dilute:
http://castlehillmtncurs.homestead.com/suedespups.html
Or it may be a color that the St. John’s water dog might have had.
Beige Newfoundlands are exactly this same color, but it looks different because of the longhair. The dilute gene in black Newfoundlands also makes the gray color.
Beige: http://dogsimages.nextdaypets.com/9893/d93043f4-bd59-48c3-a314-50b8af026b0f.jpg
Gray: http://www.newfoundlandpuppy.org/images/newfcandid4.jpg
One of the original “Newfoundlands” (really St. John’s water dogs) in Chesapeake Bay was probably a brown-skinned recessive red. There are many Chesapeakes that are actually dark recessive red with brown skin. The deadgrass color is a light recessive red with brown skin. Most golden retrievers are recessive reds with black skin.
Hi
The photo of the Chesapeakes above are from my website. http://www.shilohridgeretrievers.bravehost.com
The “ash” color is registered with the AKC as tan. ALL of the chessies in that photo are finished AKC CHAMPIONS.
TAN has been a Chesapeake color since the registration of the breed and is very useful as a camoflage color while hunting as you see they blend into any background.
Cindy
I’ve enjoyed reading through your blog, very interesting!
I am friends with the above Chessie’s and their owners and have 2 brown females of my own. You may have already looked at this but here is another link to our parent club that discusses the ash color.
Looking forward to reading more of your blog!
This is a very interesting blog. It explains the reason there are dilute chocolate “Silver” Labrador Retrievers and the yellow and blue eye color. I have traced the known “Silver Labrador” bloodlines to Chesapeake Bay Retrievers in their Ancestry where they were crossed into the Labrador to improve the breed.
I look forward to reading more of your blog. Thank you!
It explains why they’ve never found Weimaraner genetic markers in silver Labs, and there are dilute liver Newfoundlands, too.
They just call them “beige.”
I didn’t know they had looked for Weimarner markers in the dilute Labradors. All of the websites posted were wonderful for a full understanding of how this came about.
There has been such a “war” over the occurance of the color in the United States within the Labrador breeders of the color and the breders of the colors that don’t carry the dilute gene.
The yellow eye color has been bred out of some of the dogs carrying the dilute gene. The yellow eye color was documented in the foundation of the Yellow Labrador through the “Light Chocolate Riverside bloodlines”. It is believed by some that the color stayed hidden in the yellows that were bred yellow to yellow until the 1950’s.
[…] I’ve actually suggested that the much maligned silver Labrador retriever become its own breed. The color is not recognized in the AKC Labrador standard, and the current position of the American Labrador fancy is that it is nothing more than a shade of chocolate (liver). It’s actually a diluted liver, which is a chocolate dog with the dilution trait. The color was said to have been introduced through Weimaraners, but a more likely source is the Chesapeake Bay retriever. […]
[…] if they become their own breed, they can do outcrosses to ash Chesapeakes and weimaraners to increase genetic […]